Current conditions, structured as evidence.
A country condition report answers a defined risk profile with dated, attributable sources — treatment of the group, state protection, and internal relocation where raised — organised for filing, not for background reading.
Every finding should be reachable from a named source with a date.
What the country report contains.
The document is built around the questions the decision-maker must decide on country evidence. It is not a general country brief, and it is not a substitute for a full formal expert opinion where the forum requires one.
The defined question
Country, region where relevant, population or risk profile, and the precise issues instructed — persecution risk, discrimination, prosecution of a protected characteristic, or change since the decision under appeal.
Dated evidence base
Legislation, judgments, national and international reporting, and other attributable material — each with enough citation that a reader can find it. Single-source or contested propositions are marked as such.
Risk, protection, and relocation
Analysis of how the profile is treated, whether state protection is available in practice, and whether internal relocation is realistic — addressed separately where those tests arise in the forum.
Change and limits
What has shifted since a key date in the case, what the materials do not establish, and where the record is thin. Stated limits are what make the rest of the report usable.
Format follows the filing purpose, not a single house template.
Country evidence is not automatically an expert opinion.
Use a country condition report when the need is current, attributable country material on a defined profile. Use a full expert witness report when the forum expects formal duties, claim-specific opinion structure, and the declarations that go with them.
| Element | Country condition report | Full expert witness report |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Annexed country evidence on a defined profile | Formal opinion applying expertise to instructed questions under forum duties |
| Sourcing | Dated, attributable country and legal sources; contested points flagged | Same sourcing discipline, plus materials considered and assumptions stated for the opinion |
| Claim-specific opinion | Applies conditions to the instructed profile; stops short of full Part 25 / Rule 26 architecture unless scoped that way | Includes qualifications, instructions, reasoned conclusions, and required formal statements |
| Canada — NDP practice | Country evidence tied to the National Documentation Package where relied on or departed from | Same country discipline inside a fuller expert disclosure package for RPD/RAD |
| Typical use | Updating conditions, annexing risk evidence, answering a narrow country question | Where the tribunal will treat the author as an expert witness on claim-specific issues |
Narrow questions produce usable reports. Wide briefs produce unread ones.
What you must supply, and how the report is used.
We define the issue narrowly enough to assist the decision-maker. If the materials cannot answer a question, we say so during the work rather than paper over the gap.
What the instructing party must supply
Country and (if relevant) region, the risk profile, the legal or factual questions, key dates in the case, any existing country bundle or NDP extracts, and the filing deadline.
How sources are tested
Primary and authoritative material is preferred; secondary reporting is weighed for date, attribution, and consistency. Where sources conflict, the report sets out the conflict rather than choosing silently.
How it is tested at hearing
Expect challenge on currency, geographic specificity, and whether the profile analysis matches the claimant's facts. The report is written so those points can be answered from the citations.
What this report will not do
It will not invent statistics, assert un-sourced prevalence, decide the claim, or treat a general country overview as proof of individual risk. Coverage is confirmed instruction by instruction against the expert available.
Questions about this report type
- What is the difference between a country condition report and a full expert witness report?
- A country condition report answers a country question: how a specific profile is treated, whether state protection is effective in practice, whether internal relocation is reasonably available, and whether the picture has changed since the decision under challenge — sourced, dated, and structured for filing as evidence. A full expert witness report does that and carries the formal apparatus the forum requires: the expert's qualification, the instructions, the separation of fact from opinion, the range of opinion, the declaration where required, and opinions directed at the issues in the case. Where funding is limited, a country condition report or an expert letter can be the proportionate choice; where the report will be tested at hearing, the full report usually is not optional.
- What should a country condition expert report include?
- A rigorous country condition expert report identifies the claim-specific issues, sets out primary and secondary sources with dates and attribution, analyses political, security, and human rights conditions relevant to the claimant's profile, addresses state protection and internal relocation where raised, and structures conclusions so the decision-maker can apply them to the legal tests in the relevant jurisdiction.
- Which forums are these reports prepared for?
- Proceedings across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and UNHCR mandate determination — including US EOIR immigration courts, the BIA and federal proceedings, Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (RPD and RAD), the UK Immigration and Asylum Chamber and higher courts, European national asylum tribunals and the European Court of Human Rights on Article 3 risk, Australia's Administrative Review Tribunal (which replaced the AAT in October 2024), and UNHCR refugee status determination. The evidential discipline does not change between them; the form of the document does, and it is settled before drafting.
Tell us the forum, the questions, and the deadline.
We reply within one working day with the expert, the format, and the fee — before any work begins.